Sunday 26 February

1st Sunday in Lent

Genesis 9: 8-15; Psalm 25; 1 Peter 3: 18-22;
Mark 1: 12-15

Coping with suffering

St Peter is writing from Rome to the new Christians in Asia Minor (Turkey) who are suffering unjustly at the hands of their pagan neighbours, calumny, ridicule, abuse, because of the name of Christ. He indicates that they are only walking the way that Jesus, their Lord and Saviour has already walked. A suffering Christian has a suffering Lord. Christ died once and for all for sins, my sins, your sins. This is how he brought us back to God. The grace of the Risen Lord is our Baptism. It is to the Risen Lord that we pledge ourselves. Here is our triumph.